Hello and thank you so very much for your sweet and well received welcome!

My handle is "Angel" and you all can call me that or "Keena", as I answer to both. Born and raised in California--East Bay Area and so very proud of it! My partner (traveling from Adelaide, South Australia) and I are new to the scene and while I have been a quiet background supporter of projects and others people's pilgrimage to BM, I am now ready to come into the sunlight and experience the joy and radiance that I hear so many of my dear friends speak of! We are so excited that we even got tickets this time around considering the new rules and regs. Nevertheless, we are blessed to be able to have this experience and I am truly looking forward to it.

We've read the FAQs and handbook and feel our first time should be done in a camper/caravan. Any tips, blessings, or general conversation is appreciated and received with an abundance of pleasure as we want our experience to be as romantic and loving as possible!

Savannah: I don't know what it is, but no thread here escapes alive. You'll get 1 or 2 real answers at minimum, occasionally 10 or 12, and then we flog it until it's unrecognizable and you can't get your deposit back.

theCryptofishist wrote:Good question, Ellorum. Although, I do think that some people last year were newbs doing monkey huts...

I know. I think I come to these first year gear questions as someone with little storage space, a very small vehicle, and no big reserve for investment in these sorts of things. Even the monkey hut is larger than what I'd try to do, not a simple solution for me. I did fine with a kelty tripod shade and a tent with a cot my first two years. Camp luxury for me is a tent I can stand up in, and a cot that is bed height. This is my first year camp.

Simon of the Playa wrote:this is a sure fire way to get you and all of your shit covered in inches of dust.Yes, Full Brunt indeed.

I agree, the on the ground cartoon is dumb. But, suppose you have a tent to sleep in, and you need shade to sit in. a low slung chair, and that's it. To be considered by those who are worried about not belonging to a camp, or not having an r.v. as an example of how simply it can start.

the afternoon winds tend to run from the south west and head north-north-east

the best thing you can do is face the opening to your tent 180 degrees away from it....use a wedge shape against the wind versus a Square.

squares fall down in high winds, domes and wedges dont.

use your schtuff as anchors...put all your crap into piles in the four corners, if the shit really flies (and it will this year) your tent will stay put while your neighbors ends up in trego.

if you do have a vehicle do not park the grille into the prevailing winds, face it perpendicular as a wind block as seen above, however, the wedge starts at the ground to prevent any dust from getting on you and yer shit.

keep in mind people...this is not a fucking joke....if you get caught out there in a major dust storm with no water, no shelter, and improper gear, you are not going to do well....you could be wandering the deep playa, all naked and tripping and happy and then BLAMMO....white-fucking out....

i'm not kidding.

you could come back to your camp to find it obliterated by an angry dust devil (Lust Monkeys 2002)

so, i suggest, if you want to feel the full brunt, you take this little Jaunt lightly and forget all ive said.

I tent it at Confest in Australia where the temperature is often over 40 C (104 F) for days at a time and you share your space with lizards, snakes and oh so many bugs. Angel has done the same when she was over here. Confest is on the bank of a river though which always offers some relief. BM sounds much harsher and, as it is our first burn, and we are not part of a group, we didn't want to end up finding that we were just not prepared enough and wishing we weren't there (or worse). We definitely won't be spending a lot of time in the RV as there is so much to experience there but we will know we have somewhere to take time out if we need it.

I haven't read this thread in a while. And I have to say that the last four messages just made my day.

Chiron wrote:Whoops, I'm getting a bit carried away here - I'm very flattered but Angel and I have limited time together while I'm in the States so I will limit my sharing to what we mutually agree upon...

From the way I read this, Chiron hasn't said NO. He's just said that Angel has to say "YES"

As for the Shelter issue and thinking the RV is the best way to go about it I'm gonna throw my 2 cents out there (but very likely to ramble into a few hundred Cents).Check out renting a Van or Box truck. It will provide substantial shelter, but will not have sophisticated systems that if go wrong, could ruin your burn even worse. Long Story Short:: Our 2nd burn we bought an old old old RV just for Burning Man. Didn't really know a lot about it, turns out it had battery issues, which in turn meant that the Water pump would only run if the generator was on, -well it had generator issues too, so the generator wouldn't stay on for more than 30 minutes. For a while, we couldn't get water out of the water tank so it got kinda scary. The lesson, Keep It Simple "Stupid" aka KISS. If you rent a Van/Box truck but use 5 gallon water jugs (see below) you wont have water issues. If you use 1 gallon propane cans and a camp stove (see below) you wont have cooking issues. If you don't rely on a sophisticated RV, you wont have Sophisticated problems you don't know how to fix. But you think, "a rented RV will be top quality and maintained often." Maybe! But what if its not? What if it does have an issue you don't know how to fix?

I highly recommend the Box Truck Camping, a fella named JungleSmacks does it with class and style and on budget!

Why don't ya stick your head in that hole and find out? ~pieholePlan for the worst, expect the best. Make the most out of it under any conditions. If you cannot do that you will never enjoy yourself. ~CrispyDave

illy dilly wrote:And I have to say that the last four messages just made my day.

You know it illy! I live to entertain you...

I have successfully managed to scare some newbies in the intro thread. This is going down in the history.

If only they knew more about you. And what you really planed to do with him

Why don't ya stick your head in that hole and find out? ~pieholePlan for the worst, expect the best. Make the most out of it under any conditions. If you cannot do that you will never enjoy yourself. ~CrispyDave